The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-02-03

| wants no better play-spell than to stand and
watch the hats and coats Of the murderers
who are massacreing Gods children. There
goes the same man. This time he is afoot
Where is he going nowi Going on the road
| 70 Ostia to die for Christ. They tried to
whip 1t out Of him; they tried to scare
1t out OF him; they thought they
would give him enough OF 1t
by putting hum into a windowless dungeon,
and keeping him on small diet, and deny
| ing him q cloak, and condemning him as q
criminal, and bowling at HIM through the
street But they could not freeze 1t out of
him, and they could not sweat it out of
| him, and they could not pound 1t out Of
him, so they tried the surgery Of the sword,
and one summer day In 68 he was decapi-
tated Perhaps the mightiest intellect of
the 5000 years Of the worlds existence was
| hoodwinked, cheated, cajoled, dupcd by
the Christian religion.
All that Is the remarkable thing about
this delusion of Christianity, it overpowers
the strongest intellects. Gather the crit
les, secular and religious, Of this country
together, and put a vote TO them as to
which is the greatest book ever written,
and by a large majority they will say
paradise Lost" Who wrote paradise
LOST" One of the fools that believed in
this Bible, John Milton.
Benjamin Franklin surrendered to this
delusion, If you may judge from the letter
he wrote TO Thomas Paine, begging him to
destroy the age of Reason in manu-
script and never let it go into type, and
writing afterwsrd, in his old days: "Of
this Jesus of Nazareth have to say that
the system Of morals He left and the re.
ligion He gave US are the best things the
world has ever seen or is likely to see"
Patrick Henry, the electric champion of
liberty, was enslaved by this delusion, so
that he says; 1.-THE book worth all other
books put together is the Bible"
Benjamin Rush, the leading psychologist
and anatomist of his day, the great medical
scIontist-what did he sayi The only
true and perfect religion is Christianityf'
Isaac Newton, the leading philosopher Of
his time-what did he sayl That man, sur
rendering to this delusion of the Christian
religion, cried out; "The sublimest phi
losophy on earth is the philosophy of the
Gospel"
David Brewster, at the pronunciation Of
whose name every scientist the world over
| bows his head-David Brewster SAID: 80,
this religion has been great light TO me,
u very great light all my days"
President Theirs, the great French
statesman, acknowledged that he prayed
when he said: Il invoke the Lord God in
/ whom ] aIn glad to believe"
David Livingstone, able to conquer the
lion, able to conquer the panther, able to
conquer the savage, yet conquered by this
delua!on, this inflammation, this great
sWndIe of the ages, so when they find him
dead they find him on his knees.
William f.. Gladstone, the strongest in
teiirrt III England to-day. unable TO resist
thus chmera, this tallacv, TINS delusion Of
4. 4. >
God every Sabbath, and often, at the invi.
tatl0n of the rector, reads the prayers TO
TIL people
. II those mighty ntellects are over
bore by tins dc.usion, what chance is
thcie Tor you and for nes
I R"~drs that, | have noticed that first
rate mtidris can not be depended for
stca"ia9tuess Ill the proclamation of their
ssuluu nts. Goethe, a leading skeptiC,
was s. wrought upon by this Christianity
/ that III u weak moment he cried out: My
belief in the b bic has saved me in my
/ literary and moral life"
! Rousseau, one of the most eloquent
champions of inf irhty, spending his whole
! life warning against Christianity, cries
out: The majesty of the Scriptures
amuErs me-
A!tamont the notorious infidel-oue
delusion of the Christian religion Oh, no.
After talking against Christianity all his
days in the last hour Of his life he cried
out "Oh, Thou blasphemed but most in
dulgent Lord God, he'll itself is d refuge If
ii hide m from Thy frown,7
NOltairc, tn most talented intidel the
world ever saw. writing two hundred and
fifty publications, and the most Of them
spltelul against Christianity, himself the
most notorious libertine of the country
one would have thought h. could have
been depended upon for steadfaStncSs in
the advocacy of intiielIty and in the war
against this terrible chimera, this delusiOn
Of the Gospel But no; in his last hour he
ASKS for Chistan .urial, AMI asks that they
give hum the sacrament of the Lord Jesus
Christ
Why, you can not depend upon these
fir,-rate intdels-yOu can not depend upon
their power to resist this great delusion OF
Christianity. Thomas Paine, the god Of
modern skeptics his birthday celebrated
in New York and Boston with great en-
thusiasm-ThOmas Paine, the paragon of
Bible haters; Thomas Paine, about whom
ms brother inf Tel. William Carver, wrote,
in IA lette! which have at my house, say
ing that he drank quart of rum day
aud was too mean and too dishonest 10
of modern infide ity Thomas Paine, who
stole another mans wife in England and
brought her To this lant; Thomas Paine,
who was 50 sQuaid, and so lOathsome, and
So drunken, and 80 prof gate, and 50 beast
ly ia his habits som times picked out Of
the ditch, sometimes too filthy to be picked
out: Thomas Pane one would have
thought that he could have been depended
on Tor steadtaStn IS against THIS great de
lusion Bat no. In his dying hour ne begs
the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.
Powerful deusiou, all-conquerlug telu-
sion earthquakmg delusion Of the Chris
tan religion. Yea, it goes on, il is So i'm
pertinent, and ii is so overbearing This chi-
Hcra of the Gospel, that having conquered
the great picture galleries Of the world,
the uld masters and the young mas ters AS
l showed III "a former Sc rmon, it is not sat
istied until it has conquered the music Of
the world. Look over the programme of
that magnificent musical festival 1t few
years ago in New York and see what were
the ?I1 II performances, and learn that the
gIe"trSt OF all the subjects were
religious subjects. What was it one night
when three thousand VOICES were accom-
pan I'd with vast humber of Instruments!
Israel IN Egypt" Yes. Beethoven de-
ludcd until he wrote the high mass in ID
major. Haydn deluded with this religion
uutil he wrote the "CreatiOu." Handel de-
luded until he wrote the OratoriOs: "Jeph-
thlh," and "Esther,n and saul" and
lsrae! IN Egypt" and the Messiah" On
the closing night 1858 deudel people sing
ing of delusion 10 eight thousand dcluded
hearers.
Yes, this chimera of the Gospel not
satisfied until il goes on and builds itself
into the most p 'rlnaaHGt architecture, 50
Il AA-....N IrnIlLGe 10